Haggentines

The lovely Sean

I do believe that the lovely C and I may have introduced a new celebration into the Spring calendar - the festival of Haggentines.  This combination of Burns Night and Valentine's took place at Kiddy Towers a couple of weeks ago, intended to be a sort of Valentine celebration with haggis and Scottish poetry - and what could be a better way to spend an evening, I hear you ask.

In case you're wondering, Sean Connery was not among the guests; I just added this picture because I think the man looks damn fine in a kilt.  As did the lovely Ann Marie, who was channelling the Bay City Rollers in a teeny red kilt and black lace up boots.  I can't remember which of our guests suggested the name "Haggentines", but it may well have been the lovely Meg, who has a way with words and who also brought an intriguing gift of Japanese sweetmeats, described as an "Assortment of various" and featuring a weird beardy bloke on the front of the packaging.

So what is the perfect Haggentine's menu, combining aphrodisiac delights with the best that Scotland has to offer?  Well, oysters, of course, to begin.  Ours came from Pasarbella, which describes itself as a Farmers Market, a bizarre concept for Singapore, where the only things that seem to grow  are skyscrapers.  The oysters (happily) were not home grown and neither was most of the stuff on sale, but hey, it was a market of sorts and someone somewhere must have farmed the stuff, so I guess we can stretch the point.  That said, if you are an expat used to lush, abundant arrays of produce in your local farmers' market, you will be disappointed.  

Next up, Macsween's haggis, of course, in the meat and vegetarian varieties.  Now I consider myself to be pretty Scottish, the sort of Scot that gets weepy at the sound of the bagpipes, but I'd be even more weepy if someone made me eat real haggis.  Most of our guests were up for the challenge, however, including those who had eaten it before (I know, I don't get it either), but the lovely AM and I were very happy to chow down on the nutty, lentilly goodness of the veggie version.  Neeps are not readily available in Singapore, so we made do with sweet potato, which was just the right colour and worked pretty well taste wise also.  I'm not sure about the amorous powers of slow roasted leg of lamb, but the carnivores just loved it.  We finished off with my favourite dessert ever - Hilary Brown's caramel parfait pots from the La Potiniere cookbook.  This is/was a small, perfectly formed, restaurant in Gullane, near Edinburgh, run by a husband a wife team in the 80s and 90s.  Sadly, they broke up and moved away, but the restaurant seems to have had a renaissance now and I will definitely be giving it a shot the next time I'm in the area.  The Hillary and David Brown cookbook is sadly out of print, but if you need the recipe, just let me know!